Lindsay Scott

Artist Biography

Born in 1955 in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe (Formerly Rhodesia) nationally renowned artist Lindsay Scott is acclaimed for her dynamic and precise oil paintings and her exquisitely detailed pencil drawings, all of which convey the drama and spirit of African Wildlife. With a background as an illustrator, a botanical researcher and a biologist, Scott is an avid observer of nature, and her art, prints and posters reflect her close study of animal life, conveying a candid sense of firsthand experience while capturing intimate emotional moments. Growing up in her native Zimbabwe, Scott was surrounded by a tropical setting, and she spent her youth watching wildlife and learning to survive in the bush. She began to draw at an early age, and her skills were recognized by a high school art teacher, who encouraged her to pursue art as a career. Accordingly, she moved to Capetown, South Africa, to attend the Michealis School of Fine Art. At that time, the school was emphasizing abstract art, and the representational work that interested Scott was discouraged. She therefore supplemented her studies by taking courses in botany, biology and zoology and doing field sketched of plants and wildlife. To continue her studies, she transferred to the University of Minnesota, where she earned a degree in fine art and minored in biology.

On her return to South Africa, Scott became a botanical researcher at the University of Cape Town and a curator of paleobotany and ornithology at the South African museum. During this period, Scott recorded her observations on numerous sketchpads. In 1984, when one of Scott's drawings was chosen for Birds In Art, the prestigious annual exhibition at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin, she decided to devote her full attention to art. In her characteristic style, she developed meticulous illustration methods and melded and expressive use of paint to create art, prints and posters that appear tightly rendered from a distance, but upon closer examination revealed fluid brush work that gives forms a blurred and abstract appearance. A key to Scotts art is that rather than focusing on individual objects, she is primarily attentive to reflected light and the way it integrates pictorial elements.

This harmony is readily apparent in Scott's art, prints and posters, which combine naturalistic fact with a strong feeling for light and mood. Scott has exhibited extensively in America, England, and Africa and has received a number of important honors. She won an award of excellence from the Society of Animal Artists in 1992 and best of show and first place at the Pacific Rim Wildlife Art show in Tacoma, Washington, in the same year. When she is not travelling around the world in search of new subjects, Scott and her husband Brian McPhun live and work in the Matakana Valley, in New Zealand.

Lindsay Scott Art, Prints and Posters Collection